Starting Situation
Singhammer IT Consulting AG is an established software company based in Munich. The approximately 60 employees at Singhammer develop and design ERP solutions for IT system houses.
After the founder’s departure, Roger Friederich took on the role of CEO. Our collaboration began shortly thereafter. We experienced Roger Friederich as a person with many ideas and a clear vision of successful collaboration, based on the principles of freedom and responsibility. Therefore, it is not surprising that all employees have a voice in the further development of Singhammer.
Goals and Themes
We actively support the employees of Singhammer in conceptualizing and implementing new ideas in the areas of organization and collaboration.
Here are some of the central questions in the project:
- How can we dissolve the old departmental structures and form cross-functional teams?
- How can we rethink and live leadership?
- How can we enable more participation and promote self-organization?
- How can we remain efficient despite increased participation and communication?
- How can we make reflection and development of our processes and workflows a norm?
History
There is no perfect organizational form. There is only an organizational form that best meets current customer needs and market requirements. The organizational form is not an end in itself but always a means to an end. Thus, the collaboration with Singhammer began at this point. The employees reflected on the strengths and weaknesses of the current line organization, gathered the requirements of the market and customers, and started searching for the best solutions based on this.
The idea of cross-functional teams, with more freedom and self-organization, seemed promising, so we began to explore it in depth.
Soon, a leader left the company, and the question arose whether this team should attempt to work self-organized (without a formal leader). Essentially, a safe space within the company was created to test the viability of this new idea.
The experiences from this team were shared and further developed within the company. The idea matured and was eventually implemented in other parts of the organization.
This involved rethinking leadership. Instead of having a team leader who combines the leadership role on various topics, we developed a role concept with the employees that enables distributed leadership.
Regular team feedback replaced annual performance reviews. Retrospectives ensure that processes and workflows are continuously examined and specifically developed. The starting point is always the problems and ideas of the employees directly affected.
More participation also means more communication. To maintain efficiency in tightly scheduled project work, we placed particular emphasis on developing decision-making tools and strengthening facilitation skills in all teams.
In these multifaceted projects, we act as trainers, coaches, and sparring partners. With our social science expertise and focus on current issues and challenges in the transformation process.
